About a year had passed since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and Leroy “Swede ” Svendsen Jr. figured he’d waited long enough.
Not quite 14, he ran away from home in Chicago with a buddy and took a train to Los Angeles. He badly wanted to fight. He and his pal told a Marine recruiter they were 16.
“The recruiter said, ‘We need to call your parents for permission,’,” said his widow, Juanita Svendsen, 83. “And the recruiter called home and they said, ‘Not only no, but hell no, and send him home on the next train. He’s only 13.'”